A controlling man who lost his temper after his partner found him leaving the home of his ex-girlfriend ended up ramming her car on a number of occasions.

It was described by a judge as a form of road rage of the worst kind.

A court heard today how at one stage Tron Horsfield was using his Volvo to push Kirsty Buckley’s Audi A3 along the road.

Horsfield was jailed for 15 months and banned from driving for twenty seven and a half months after he admitted dangerous driving, damaging her silver Audi A3 and the theft of the victim’s mobile phone.

Judge Rhys Rowlands, sitting at Mold Crown Court, said that in temper he had used his Volvo vehicle as a weapon in what he described as “very, very serious” dangerous driving.

The judge made a five year restraining order under which he must not approach Miss Buckley or enter the road in which she lives at Pensarn near Abergele.

Horsfield, 34, of Erw Fach, Gwyddelwern, near Corwen, had been in a relationship with Miss Buckley for some six months but she told how his behaviour was having a negative effect upon her.

The relationship was coming to an end as she complained he objected to her spending time with friends and using social media.

On August 30 she spent the evening with her sister and when she contacted the defendant he was upset because he said she had not answered his call earlier.

He instructed her to collect him from a friend’s home which she did, explained prosecuting barrister Michael Whitty,

She dropped him off at his home and it was agreed that they would spend the evening apart – but she suspected that he would go to the home of his former girlfriend and waited.

“Sure enough, she observed him going to where she thought he might go,” the prosecutor said.

He came out of that address in a temper and threw a bicycle at her car which landed on the roof, causing a dent.

The defendant was abusive and shouting at her. He leaned into the car and took her mobile phone.

The former girlfriend told them both to leave, he was the first to do so and Miss Buckley waited a few minutes to ensure that he had gone.

But his car approached, turned around and rammed her several times, jolting her car forward.

He was screaming and shouting at her and Mr Whitty said that at one stage he was “effectively pushing her vehicle along with his own.”

Her car was forced into a hedge at one stage and he drove off. She reversed and drove on but he came up behind her and rammed her car again.

That time it sent her car across to the other side of the carriageway and off the road.

He was shouting at her to move her car and when she refused he got in and moved it herself.

The defendant drove away in his own vehicle but returned and made a comment “what happened to your car?” and asked how she was going to “drive up there when I am sh***ing her.”

Another road user had called the police, she was desperate to get away and drove off but he caught up with her and blocked her path as she tried to drive onto the forecourt of The Texaco Garage at Ruthin.

She was eventually able to get to the garage where she rang the police and witnesses described the defendant’s behaviour as horrendous as he continued to be unpleasant towards her.

He was aggressive with police and only got into the police car after officers warned they would use captor spray.

Duncan Bould, defending, said that it was accepted that it was a disgraceful and dangerous incident towards a wholly innocent person. He had expressed remorse and accepted what he had done in a letter to the judge although he had not done so in his pre-sentence report. There had been some progress in that respect, said Mr Bould.

His client had been working for a Denbigh tyre company which spoke highly of him and which said that it would keep his job open for him indefinitely.

Judge Rowlands told the defendant: “This was a disgraceful and sustained incident involving a loss of temper. You rammed her vehicle more than once.”

The judge said that it was “deliberate risk taking” and “a former of road rage of the worst kind”.

Fortunately the victim had not been harmed but that was only a matter of good fortune.

It could not be said to be out of character because he had previous convictions for violence directed at women.

“This was very, very dangerous driving, bullying and controlling behaviour, using your vehicle as a weapon against your then partner,” the judge said.

Ipsoregulated

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